Puducherry: 4 persons succumb to Covid-19, 178 new cases

Four persons succumbed to coronavirus in Puducherry taking the death toll to 56 while 178 fresh cases were reported on Monday.

The 178 new cases took the overall tally in the union territory to 3,982 of which 1,515 (including 273 in home isolation) were active, Health Minister Malladi Krishna Rao said at a virtual press conference.

He further said as many as 2,411 patients had been treated and discharged so far.

On the deaths reported in the last 24 hours ending 10 am today, the Minister said a 71-year old male patient died at centrally-administered JIPMER, while three other patients (two women in the age group of 52 and 60 years and one male patient aged 55) succumbed at the government-run Indira Gandhi Medical College Hospital.

All the four patients had co-morbidities and died on Sunday, he added.

Also, he said the 178 new cases were identified after examining 782 samples in 24 hours, showing a positivity rate of 22.8 percent.

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The Minister said that 102 patients were treated and discharged.

The Department of Health and Family Welfare has so far tested 41,540 samples and found 36,894 of them to be negative.

Results of examination of the remaining samples were awaited.

The rate of fatality in Puducherry was 1.4 percent, the Minister said.

While 125 of the 178 new cases were being treated in hospitals in Puducherry, nine were in the government GH in Karaikal followed by 42 in the GH in Yanam and the remaining two were undergoing treatment at the GH in Mahe.

Yanam region, an enclave of Puducherry in Andhra Pradesh's East Godavari district, had a total of 151 active cases.

Rao, elected from Yanam to the territorial Assembly, had been camping in the constituency for some days overseeing the arrangements to battle the infection.

The Minister said he had directed the health authorities to get the adequate infrastructure ready as the number of fresh cases was likely to increase in the coming days.

He said with East Godavari district registering an increase in number of patients, Yanam region was bearing the impact and hence the number of fresh cases was going up every day.

The Minister appealed to the people seeking healthcare for other ailments to avoid crowding at hospitals.

"I appeal to people to come to hospitals for emergency treatment only and avoid coming for small and non-serious ailments. Number of people accompanying the patients should also be minimum," he added.

Director of Health and Family Welfare S Mohan Kumar said Covid-19 was spreading fast in the union territory and urged people to adhere to safety norms, particularly social distancing.